Some oral health facts and figures

• A third of all children starting school have tooth decay.
• Around a quarter of all adults say they have not visited a dentist in the past two years.
• One in four adults don’t brush twice a day, including a third of men
• One in ten admit they regularly forget to brush their teeth
• 21 per cent of adults use dental floss regularly while one in three have never flossed their teeth
• Around two per cent of the population have never visited a dentist
• One in every seven adults who had ever been to a dentist suffers from extreme dental anxiety

Some fun facts

• Half of us brush our tongue when we brush our teeth
• Earrings, business cards, keys, matchsticks and screwdrivers are just some of the objects we admit to using to get food particles from our teeth
• More than half of us wouldn’t tell a friend or colleague if they had bad breath in fear of risking a friendship
• Almost 60 per cent say we regularly floss, however, sales in the UK indicate that the true figure is actually more like 5 per cent
• One in five cannot remember when we last changed our toothbrush
• A toothbrush came top of the list of things we could not do without when we go on holiday
• If we only had five minutes to get ready in the morning, one in twenty would skip brushing our teeth

Why a smile is important:

• It takes 43 muscles to frown but only 17 to smile
• When seeking a new partner, a smile is top of the most sought after physical attributes, beating body shape, dress sense and eyes
• Teeth/Smiles are rated the second most important attraction feature, after personality, and the most important body feature surveyed (including body shape, height, hair, face and eyes).
• On a night out, 80 per cent of us would be more likely to talk to somebody we didn’t know if they smiled at us
• A ‘smile’ comes top of the things we first notice when meeting a new person